Month: February 2008
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Avenue E
Way back when (i.e., the late 90s), that’s what real estate people were calling Bedford Avenue. It was a rather annoying contrivance by people who didn’t know anything about Williamsburg or how to “sell” it. Which is to say its been almost a decade since I’ve heard a Williamsburg-is-the-new-East-Village remark like this.
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Julius Spiegel
NYT profile of Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Julius Spiegel: “I think I’m about to crack Robert Moses’ longevity record of 26 years and 100-something days with the department,” he says. So he is much relieved that the bane of his tenure, the decrepit pool at McCarren Park, the grandest of the city’s necklace of pools, created…
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Rockaway Ferry
The water taxi also has routes connecting lower Manhattan to Williamsburg and DUMBO in Brooklyn. Yes, too bad they don’t have any boats connecting lower Manhattan to Williamsburg and DUMBO.
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Franklin Street
One of the great changes to occur over the past few years is the reopening of many long-shuttered storefronts. The changes on Franklin Street have been particularly dramatic (likewise Grand Street). Jane Jacobs would be proud.
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Fire on Kent Avenue ≠ 475
As of 8:00 am, WNYC is reporting that FDNY has just gotten a fire under control at a matzo factory on the Brooklyn waterfront. According to the brief report, the fire broke out this morning at a matzo factory next to 475 Kent Avenue (there’s another factory next to the building?). We’ve seen no other…
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Accountability
I haven’t run across the Mayor’s Citywide Performance Reporting system before. Its a neat idea – the system monitors the performance of City government overall and agency by agency (and given the Mayor’s wonkery and geek background, I’m sure this a exercise near and dear to his heart). Overall, we’re doing pretty well. Citywide, 53%…
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New Housing Marketplace Progress
The Women’s Club of New York held a panel discussion on the state of the Mayor’s New Housing Marketplace plan to construct or preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing. The panel discussion follows up on a recent study by the City’s Independent Budget Office, which found that the City was largely on target in meeting…